Career Summary

This week on the Holiday Gift Guide, we tackle TV on DVD releases. As usual, I will only talk about first season and complete series updates, because you don't need me to tell you if Modern Family: Season Five on DVD would be a good gift or not. Do you know someone who owns and likes the first four seasons but doesn't have season five on DVD yet? Buy it. Or maybe not. Maybe they are waiting for it to come out on Blu-ray. Okay, bad example. But you get were I'm coming from. Unfortunately, this year's collection seems rather weak. There were only three new TV shows from last year that I really liked and there are not as many Full-Season Megasets to compensate. Worst still, some of these Megasets that are coming out are like True Blood or How I Met Your Mother and ended on a really weak note.
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Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was a risky show to make, for a couple of reasons. Mostly it was risky because of the public's perception of what a super hero show should be like. When the public's expectations are not met, they tend to react negatively, even if the movie / TV show is good. For example, Drive was sold as an high-octane action film, but it was a slow burning drama. The critics loved it, but a lot of people attacked the movie for not living up to expectations. A little closer to home, The Tick was a live action TV series that could be described as, "Seinfeld, but the four main characters are super heroes." This is a great idea and I loved the show. However, a lot of people were disappointed as it wasn't a super hero action movie. Of course it's not a super hero action movie. You can't make a super hero action movie on a TV budget. Even today, you can't make a super hero action movie on a TV budget. Unfortunately, a lot of people were expecting Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to be just that, so while the ratings were huge the first night, they quickly dropped off. Were those who stuck with the show rewarded? Should those who stopped watching start again?
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